Long Weekend!

It’s the start of the summer long weekends! Maybe you have cottage plans, maybe you’re getting the boat out from wherever you put it, gardening or planting flowers or maybe you’re an artist/entrepreneur who is compromising by dragging your laptop outside to continue getting work done.

With the last thought in mind, here are a few bits to read, to try and to think about.

From the ever-fabulous Avery Swartz – How to Get Your Business Online If You Can’t Afford a Web Designer. “professional web services can be expensive, especially if you’re just starting out. If you have some time and enthusiasm, you can create a simple website on your own, and save the big design bucks for when you’re a little more established.”

Perhaps you’re finishing up your Facebook page before you start asking people to like it all over the place – from Drew’s Marketing Minute – 9 Keys to Wicked Awesome Landing Pages. And we’ve all spent time uploading photos and things only to be told the photo is the wrong size, not big enough or realize the photo is giant and can’t be seen properly. Here’s a cheat sheet.

Another article from the always interesting Guardian – How could technology change theatre criticism for good?“While words alone can create a rich tapestry of critical response, imagine how much richer this might be with the addition of images, video, audio, geotagging, experimental forms such as Pinterest – the list goes on. Despite having such options at their fingertips, the majority of those writing theatre criticism for the web remain trapped in the conventional print review format: a block of text that often tries to avoid spoilers. Myriad possibilities are there, but it seems we’re slow to adopt them.”

Finally I was part of a workshop yesterday for CDA (Canadian Dance Assembly) where William Yong and I and his tech partner Elysha Poirier spoke about technology and communities and using technology both to promote and create your art. It was a good discussion, thought-provoking. Head over to the Zata Omm website to see what they’re working on. Very cool, very interesting stuff.

Have a lovely long weekend, if you’re working in an office, hope you get to close early today and go for a cool drink on a patio!